But I really admire your resourcefulness and composure. For the average person, very few people can survive an experience like yours. If I were replaced, I wouldn't dare to say that I could do better than you. ”

"That's my misunderstanding. If you're not saying I've done something wrong, what do you mean? ”

"I just said to investigate."

"Well, that's what I thought, the only reason I'm alive is that I'm furious, furious. These bastards broke into my house, these sons of a bitch. They hurt my friend, they ...... I was so angry that I couldn't care about being afraid. I just want to protect Ms. Gong and thank the Bodhisattva, and I did it. I'm proud of that. I don't know if I should tell you this, but I'm proud. There's probably no need to say the following to the officer, but I'm going to say it anyway. If I had to, I would have risked my life to do it again, and I would be proud of it, because I didn't let these bastards kill Ms. Gong. ”

"You're an amazing person, Mr. Ku."

"Hey, I'm not a hero."

"I didn't say you're a hero."

"All I have is good luck."

"That's right."

At this time, a doctor appeared at the door of the waiting room. He was not tall, looked very thin, and was in his mid-30s. He wears a green hospital uniform, with a stethoscope around his neck and a pair of small, round-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose. "Who among you is Bronze, Mr. Gu?"

Bronze quickly stood up. "Can you tell me how my friend is?"

"The flesh of her shoulder was bruised. The bleeding has stopped, and the wound has been disinfected and stitched. After treatment, she is getting better. As long as unexpected complications are prevented, she will recover quickly. ”

Bronze closed his eyes and muttered in a low voice, "Bodhisattva bless." ”

"Yes, you should be thankful for the Bodhisattva," the doctor said, "and your friend was in a state of shock when he was taken to the hospital. Her blood pressure was low and her pulse was erratic. Luckily, her vital data has returned to normal. ”

Bronze thought, is it really back to normal? He feared that things would never return to normal. "When will she be able to come home?"

"I don't know yet, it depends on how well she recovers."

"Can I go see her?"

"She's resting, I can't let you stay too long."

Officer Blue stepped forward. "Is she in her right mind? Can I make a statement to the police? ”

The doctor shook his head. "If I hadn't thought that her meeting with Mr. Gu would have helped with his treatment, I wouldn't have even let him in."

Gong Yu looked pale, his eyes were sunken, and his hair, which was originally very thick, was unkempt and dull.

But here and now, Bronze thinks she has never looked so beautiful.

After the doctor left, Bronze closed the door, and the noise in the hallway suddenly subsided a lot. He stared at Gong Yu for a long time, his throat choking. He walked to the side of the bed, took Gong Yu's hand, which was not suspended by the bandage, leaned over, and kissed her.

"What do you think?" He was cautious, lest he touch the intravenous tube on Gong Yu's left arm.

Gong Yu shrugged weakly. Apparently, the sedatives were already working on her.

"The doctor says you're doing well." Bronze said.

Gong Yuxi moved her lips and said something, but Bronze didn't hear her clearly.

Gong Yu tried to speak again. She licked her dry lips, then gestured to the teacup filled with water. There is a bent tube in the cup. Bronze placed the straw between Gong Yu's lips. She sucked.

"Are you okay?" She asked in a hoarse whisper.

"I'm freaking out too."

"yes." Gong Yu said with difficulty.

"Are your shoulders better?"

"It hurts when you touch it." She couldn't lift her eyelids.

"I think it must hurt."

"I really don't want to imagine what will happen after the painkillers." Gong Yu cowered. She gripped her bronze hand hard, but it was dead in a few moments. She didn't even have the strength to open her eyes. "Thank you."

"I'm not going to let you get hurt again."

"I know." Gong Yu said.

"I love you."

Bronze could barely hear her next sentence.

"Who......?"

Bronze thought she would definitely ask the question, so she went on to say, "Who are they?" I don't know. It was as if he had swallowed ashes in his mouth. There was only one thought in his mind, and that was that the woman he loved with all his heart would never lie in the hospital if it weren't for him. "Trust me, though, I'll try to figure it out."

Gong Yu didn't hear him. Her darkened eyes slowly closed, and she drifted off to sleep.

Officer Blue drove along Lindo Road with bronze. Due to the lack of sleep, coupled with the strong sunlight in the early morning, the bronze eyes felt a tingling pain. They had been at the police station for two hours, and it was now close to half past nine. Officer Blue was driving him home.

"I'm sorry for the trouble you," the energetic officer said, "but at the time of the trial the judge will ask me to assure that all absolutely unconscionable possibilities have been ruled out." ”

Bronze did his best to hide his concerns. To his horror, although he had killed the four men who had attacked him, the threat to his life had apparently not been eliminated. He had to figure out why they were sent and who sent them. Maybe another team of killers has put him under surveillance, who knows? At this moment, a police car passed by, presumably they had just made a check on their home. Bronze decided to turn around and watch the car drive farther and farther along the road, as this move was a matter of course for him. This trick was very clever, which not only confirmed that he was not being followed, but also made it inconvenient for Officer Lan to ask more.

"There is an unconscionable possibility that you are a drug dealer and have fallen out with your friend." "You didn't keep the promise you made to them, you didn't pay off the money. So, they decided to make an example and send these four guys to kill you. Yet you are a resourceful person. You strike first and kill them. Then, you arrange everything as if you were an innocent who almost didn't save your life. ”

"That includes hurting my own friends."

"Of course, this is only a hypothetical possibility." Officer Blue made a casual gesture. "This is just one of the many speculations that I have considered and ruled out, and the judge will ask me to make sure I think it through." He stopped the car on the road outside the bronze residence, but he couldn't park it in the driveway because a van and two police cars were in the way. "It seems that the forensic team is not done yet. You said you wanted to take a shower, and now you have to wait. ”

"It's not just because of that. I just remembered that a guy had shot through my water heater. You might as well send me to the house next door. ”

For a moment, Officer Blue looked confused. The wrinkles on his forehead made his long, slender and handsome face look even rougher. Then he nodded knowingly. "By the way, you said your friend and you are neighbors."

"I have the key." Bronze said.

Several curious bystanders gathered on the side of the road, showing obvious interest in the police car that hit them as they passed. Bronze couldn't help but wonder if any of them posed a threat to himself. His muscles tensed all at once.

"When you lived in Chongqing, which real estate company did you work for?" Officer Blue asked.

"Hartung Company. You know, it's the real estate tycoon who made his fortune in Shanghai. ”

"Do you remember their phone number?"

"I haven't called them in over a year, but I remember." Bronze pretended to be a memory, and then dictated the numbers, and Officer Lan wrote them down one by one. "But I don't know why I want to involve them?"

"It's just a general background check."

"Officer, you're starting to make me feel like a criminal."

"Really?" Officer Blue tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. "If you remember something and forgot to tell me, I'll come to your house."

After entering, Bronze locked Gong Yu's front door, and then leaned against the door in exhaustion, he listened nervously, and the silence in the adobe house was suffocating. Then, he walked into the living room and grabbed the phone. Under normal circumstances, he would wait until he found a pay phone, but now he can't wait, and, as he has repeatedly reminded himself, there will be no more normal situations.

"This is Hartung." A man's calm voice came over the phone.

"I have a collect call from Mr. Ma here," the operator said, "do you agree to pay?" ”

Mr. Ma is bronze to the operator's name. It's a code for an emergency.

"Yes," the voice said immediately, "I agree to pay." ”

"Please, Mr. Ma."

Bronze wasn't sure if the operator was still listening. "Did you show me the number I'm using?" He asked to the voice on the other end.

"Of course."

"Call me back at this number right away."

Ten seconds later, the phone rang. "Hey!"

"Is it Mr. Ma?"

"My numbers are 8, 7, 4, 4, 5."

Bronze seemed to hear the sound of the other person tapping his fingers on the typewriter.

"Is it bronze?"

"Yes."

"Our records show that you quit more than a year ago in June, so why would you want to reconnect?"

"Because last night four people tried to kill me."

They didn't answer right away, and after a while they said, "Repeat again." ”

Bronze repeats again.

"I'll transfer the phone to you."

The next man's voice had the stern tone of a powerful man. "Tell me everything."

In just 5 minutes, Bronze narrates the whole process in its well-trained and concise language. The accuracy and realism of his narration are enhanced by the urgency of his tone.

"Do you think this attack has anything to do with your previous employment with us?" The officer asked.

That's a clear explanation. Listen, these killers are likely to be colleagues from Jiang Zhe. And the last time I went on a mission was in Shanghai, in Shanghai. It was a disaster, please check the file. ”

"This was on my desk at the same time as we were talking. It's too far-fetched for you to link last night's attack to the events in Shanghai. ”

"This is what I think is the only incident relevant at the moment. I want you to look into this, I can't do anything-"

"But now we don't have any responsibility to you." The voice said firmly.

"Hey, when I resigned, you obviously thought you were responsible for me. You're spying on me everywhere, and I think your security audits are going to be endless. Damn, two months ago, you were still spying on me. So, no more nonsense! Listen carefully! There was a police detective who was investigating the attack on me, and his surname was Blue. Clearly, he had developed doubts about my own statement. So far, I can handle him. But if something happens again, if another group of killers tries to do what the first guy didn't do, then he will be more sure of his judgment. He may find out a lot more than you think he might find. ”

"We'll let him give up."

"You'd better do that," said Bronze in an accentuated tone, "I've always been faithful, and I expect you to do the same to me." Send someone to help me, find out who sent those men to kill me. ”

The voice on the other side didn't answer right away. "I have the number of the phone you are using on my monitor. Is it safe for me to call you over there? ”

"It's not safe, I'll call you again."

"Six hours later." The man hung up the phone.

Bronze immediately put down the microphone, and strangely enough, the bell rang again. He frowned and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"I don't think you have time to take a shower." The voice on the phone was melodious, almost as beautiful as music. Decker immediately knew who it was - Officer Blue.

"yes, how do you know?"

"Your phone is busy all the time. I've tried several times and wanted to get in touch with you. ”

"I had to contact some clients to cancel the original arrangement."

"Are you done? I hope you've done it all—because I want to go to your place for an interview. I've got some information that will be of interest to you. ”

"The ID cards of the people you killed show that they came from Suzhou." Officer Blue said.

He sat in the living room with Bronze. Investigators in the house were moving equipment to a van and two police cars, and they were soon leaving.

"But Suzhou is thousands of kilometers away," Officer Lan continued, "and if they just want to burglary, they will run a little too far." They can do it locally. ”

"Maybe they're passing through Santa Fe and running out of money." Bronze said.

"It still doesn't explain the automatic weapons and why they opened fire so quickly."

"They must have noticed someone in the house and shot in a panic."

"Suzhou must be a fake." Officer Lan said, "The Suzhou Police Department made an inquiry for me, and none of those names were residents of the address. In fact, three of the addresses don't exist at all, while the fourth is a funeral home. ”

"There really are people who have such a cold sense of humor."

"And very realistically forged documents. So, we need to do more in-depth investigation. Officer Blue said, "I've taken their information to the Bureau." In a day or two, we'll know if the investigators from the Bureau of Investigation have found fingerprints that match the ones in the file. At the same time, I also informed the Central and Military Commanders. The numbers on the two Yuz and Mike 10 have been corroded by acid, but they may have a way to reproduce them. If they succeed, these numbers may show us the way. Like, where did the gun come from, or more likely stolen. But that's not what I want to talk to you about. ”

Bronze waited worriedly.

"Let's go for a walk. I want you to see what's going on behind your house. ”

Bronze thought, what will I see? Nervously, he followed him down the hallway from the door of the master bedroom. The corpse had been carried away, but the pungent smell of gunpowder had not yet dissipated. The sun shone in through the glass windows of the hallway, one of which was shattered by bullets. In the sunlight, the large patches of blood that had solidified and blackened on the tiled floor of the corridor were particularly dazzling. Bronze glanced towards the bedroom and saw that the mattress and pillows had been shattered by bullets. Black graphite fingerprint powder can be found everywhere. When Esperanza turned the doorknob at the end of the hallway, he smeared some graphite powder on his hands.

"You hear them pick the lock." Officer Blue strode out of the house and into a small garden full of yucca, roses, and dwarf holly. "They climbed through this courtyard wall and then pried open the door."

He motioned for the bronze to look out of the chest-high courtyard wall. "Did you notice that the bushes on the other side were trampled down? There were many footprints on the sand outside the grass. The footprints matched the shoes worn by the intruder. ”

Officer Blue walked along the wall, looking for a spot that wouldn't break the marks he had just pointed out, and climbed over the wall, waiting for the bronze to follow.

The strong sunlight shone so hard that Bronze couldn't open his eyes. He jumped off the wall and landed near two yellow bands. This is the crime scene rope that the police pulled up on the dwarf pine trees to isolate those footprints.

"You're a big deal." Officer Blue's shoes creaked against the cobblestones. He led the bronze down a steep slope in a direction parallel to those traces. They walk among yucca, dwarf pines, and tall, dense, waist-high evergreen shrubs. A typical feature of this shrub is that its seeds turn dark yellow every September.

From time to time, the officer pointed to those marks. The slope grew steeper and steeper, and he and Bronze made their way through the larch forest on the hillside to the bottom of the slope. Then, following the traces, they followed a ditch to a road lined with poplar trees. Bronze recognized. It's a trail. The footprints were gone, but the gravel road was left with ruts, and it looked like a car was speeding away.

"It took me more time than I expected," Officer Blue said, "and we almost fell several times." ”

Bronze nodded, waiting for him to give his opinion.

"It's still daytime, and it's hard to imagine how long it will take in the middle of the night and how difficult it will be. Why are they in so much trouble for themselves? If you look at both sides of this road, it's full of luxury residences, and it's very scattered, and it's easy to get your hands on. Why did those four people drive here and get out of the car? It's so low that we can't even see if there's a house on it. ”

"I don't know what you mean." Bronze said.

"Your home is not chosen randomly, they have decided in advance. You are the target of their deliberate attack. ”

"What do you say? But it's ridiculous. Why would anyone want to kill me? ”

"That's the crux of the matter." Officer Blue's gaze became more and more serious. "What are you hiding from me?"

"I have absolutely nothing to hide," said Bronze insistfully, "I told you everything I could think of." ”

"So, think about it, what would you do if someone drove their car away, and he came back with another group of people to complete the mission?"

"Officer, are you trying to scare me?"

"I'll send a policeman to guard your house."

When Bronze took off his clothes and walked into the bathroom, he had never felt so isolated, so unprotected. He never wanted to leave his residence unless it was absolutely necessary. So, he dismissed the idea of going to Gong Yu's house to take a shower, and made do with the cold water in his bathroom to rinse his body. It wasn't very comfortable, of course, and it wasn't possible to satisfy his desire to wash away the sticky wet sweat and the grim reaper's mildew that was wrapped around him. He shuddered incessantly and washed his hair and whole body as quickly as possible. His muscles tensed and ached.

He quickly shaved. Since the razor was used with cold water, it felt very painful to scrape on the face. Then, he put on flat shoes, crank trousers and a camel hair sweater. He chose these dark outfits because they were unobtrusive. How he wished the police hadn't confiscated his pistol, and regretted not buying two at the time. He picked up a bag of clothes, which he had taken out of his bedroom closet after making a phone call at Gong Yu's residence. He carried his bag, trying not to look at the dried blood on the aisle floor, and came to the living room. Officer Sang was waiting for him.

"I got to the hospital to see my friend." Bronze said.

"I'll drive you."

The stout policeman crossed the yard and stepped onto the driveway. He looked around, and after confirming that there was nothing out of the ordinary, he motioned for Bronze to come out and get into the police car. A group of curious onlookers gathered on the road, pointing at the bronze house. He was annoyed and uneasy, but it was always better to have Officer Sang as a guard. Bronze thought, if only I had a gun!

Officer Blue said that the police were sent to protect the bronze, an explanation that did not deceive him. Officer San stayed with him and didn't just provide protection; There are police officers in place to ensure that Bronze doesn't suddenly leave the place before Officer Blue finds an answer. Bronze remembered that the intelligence officer he had spoken to on the phone had told him to call in six hours, but those six hours seemed like an endless period of time.

Officer Sang drove up the road towards the hospital. Bronze glanced at the back window of the car to see if anyone was following.

。